Summary: Stewardship is an important lesson for all of us, but it’s about a whole lot more than money...

Introduction – The story is told of President Franklin Roosevelt, that he often wearied during the often-long receiving lines at White House events. He complained that no really paid any attention what was said. Well, one day during a reception, he decided to try an experiment. To each person who passed down the line and shook his hand he muttered, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” The guests responded with phrases like; “Marvelous, Keep up the good work,” or “We’re proud of you, keep up the good work.” No one seemed to be listening. It was not until the end of the line while greeting the ambassador of Bolivia, that his words were actually heard. With only a slightly surprised look on his face, the ambassador leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure she had it coming.”

Don’t be like so many and say, “I’ve heard this before, and know what’s going to be said, so I don’t have to bother to listen. You might be surprised. God may have some He wants to say to you.

Context of the Passage: Luke 19 begins with Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus at Jericho. Crowds were coming to Jesus wherever He traveled. Some were even saying that this man could possibly be the Messiah. Zacchaeus was one such person. When he followed the crowd the see Jesus, conversion was probably the last thing on his mind. (Isn’t it wonderful to know that even when we think nothing of Jesus, He can’t get us off His mind)? At the time of his conversion, with a great number of others observing, Zacchaeus immediately demonstrated the complete change that had come over him by offering to return four times to anyone that he had ever cheated. This was no idle boast, and there were probably plenty there who were ready to take him up on his offer.

With this as the backdrop, Jesus shares an important parable with the crowd that was gathered around Zacchaeus’ house...

Note: This teaching is during the last week of Jesus’ life prior to His crucifixion, so it must be important—and we should treat it as such.

I. In this parable Jesus speaks of people with three very distinctive life-styles, and life goals 1) the nobleman, 2) his citizens, and 3) his servants.

First, let’s talk about the citizens.

They are the people who say, “I want everything to be my way.” Their attitude is that they don’t want this man to be their king. They have some plans of their own, and they don’t include having a king over them.

This is very much a timely parable that Jesus shares. King Herod Antipas had just died and his son had traveled to Rome to make a claim for the kingdom. At the same time, Herod’s subjects had sent a delegation to Caesar to say, “This man is not acceptable as king. We don’t want him and we will not accept him as our king.” So this was something that was very familiar to those Jesus spoke to.

The nobleman

This man was king by birth, and regardless of the desires of the people he was the rightful king. (Kind of reminds me of the Prince Charles debate in England).

The king presents his servants with control over portions of his wealth and gives them the responsibility to oversee it until he returned.

The amount given to each of the servants is not

important, what is, is that he entrusted them with the

responsibility of stewardship. According to what I read in the scriptures he gives no specific instructions, simply saying that they should put

it to work until he returned.

The servants

There are ten servants that were included in this distribution, yet the parable focus’s on the activity of only three of them. So I think it’s fair to say that each of these servants represent something that Jesus was trying to teach the multitude.

These three servants each choose a different method of

investment of there master’s resource.

One was very aggressive, and saw an aggressive return.

One was moderately active, and saw a moderate return.

One was extremely conservative as to the point of not

risking anything for fear of losing it.

The important thing that we need to remember here is that each of the servants knew that they would be required to give an account of their handling of this responsibility.

II. Application for our lives today

There are those (both with and without Christ) who regularly debate and deny the right Christ’s lordship.

Some are simply not willing to live life on His terms. They want their own way and that’s the only thing that will satisfy them.